Former Finance Minister and Senior Congress Leader P. Chidambaram welcomed the decision taken by Government of India to borrow an additional 4.2 lakh crores thereby taking the projected fiscal deficit to 5.38%.
Mr. Chidambaram had in a statement said that he and other members of the Congress party appealed to the Centre to shed its reservations about fiscal deficit and borrow more for 2020-21.
However, he added that “It is not enough to borrow more unless the amount is used to provide relief to poor and restart the economy. We look forward to the revised expenditure budget for 2020-21.”
The Centre had earlier announced that it will borrow ₹4.2 lakh crores more than the budgeted ₹7.8 lakh crores for the fiscal year, taking the total government borrowings to ₹12 lakh crores.
The fall in tax and non-tax revenues due to the ensuing lockdown and the possibility of falling short of the disinvestment target of ₹2.1 lakh crore has made the government revise its budgeted estimates.